Tune and Prepare!

Jesus on stress Phil Moore, London Most people don’t find {Jesus’ teaching on rest} very controversial. That’s because they haven’t understood it. They think that Jesus’ teaching about stress and worry is nothing more than fortune-cookie wisdom, nothing more than a first-century version of the Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. But it isn’t. It is much, much more radical than that. It tells us that stress is the chief symptom of our idolatry and self-worship. When we understand what Jesus said about stress and worry, it’s easy to see why it got him killed. The gospel writers tell us that the issue of stress and worry was a recurring theme in Jesus’ teaching. Luke tells us what he taught in the autumn of 29 AD, only five or six months before his enemies crucified him: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or ...

Phil Moore When the British Isles stood on the brink of French invasion in the run-up to the Seven Years War, King George II did something rather remarkable. He proclaimed a solemn day of prayer and fasting in which he called his nation to petition God for deliverance. John Wesley records in his Journal for Friday 6th February 1756 that "The fast day was a glorious day, such as London has scarce seen since the Restoration. Every church in the city was more than full, and a solemn seriousness sat on every face. Surely God heareth prayer, and there will yet be a lengthening of our tranquillity.” John Wesley was right. The French invasion was averted and Britain would go on to win the war. A few years later, when the American colonists began their revolution against British rule, one of the first rulings of the Continental Congress was that the revolutionists ought to do the same. A national “day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer” on 20th July 1775 helped the ramsha...